Memory is a 'team effort'

A study carried out at the University of Bristol has suggested that using our memories needs three different parts of the brain to function together.

The research, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, said the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and perirhinal cortex each had their own function in relation to processing memory.

The team said the hippocampus played the key role in remembering where an object was located.

They used rats to carry out experiments to find out more about the role of the hippocampus in memory.

They also looked at how the hippocampus worked in relation to the prefrontal and perirhinal cortices.

These study showed that "object-in-place" or "temporal order recognition" memories could not be created if the link between the hippocampus and either the perirhinal cortex, or the prefrontal cortex, was stopped.

Dr Clea Warburton, co-author of the study and reader in cognitive neuroscience at the University of Bristol, said the study had found a vital brain circuit.

"In normal day to day life we are all collecting information within this brain circuit, which may involve other bits of the brain too.

"If we recognise somebody in the supermarket but can't remember their name it may be because we are used to seeing them somewhere else, like work."